UNI Africa General Conference — Forward for a New Africa: Mobilise, Organise, Innovate

More than five hundred union leaders from across Africa and beyond are gathering in Dakar, Senegal from, 23 March to 25 March for the 4th General Conférence of UNI Africa under the theme ‘Forward for a New Africa: Mobilise, Organise, Innovate’.

A number of top leaders including Nobel Peace Prize winner, Houcine Abassi, one of the members of the Tunisian Quartet who received the award in 2015 for nurturing a peaceful transition after the Arab Spring , addressed this important meeting . The ITUC-Africa Secretary-General, Comrade Kwasi Adu-amankwah, who was part of the delegation, also adressed a communication on the role of trade unions for a mobilization for a sustainable world.

The conference addressed the challenges and opportunities of the Future World of Work for the African continent and the important role of unions in this New Digital World in creating difference working materials.

Africa’s population is expected to double in the next 20 years up to 2 billion people, with the number of young people rising from 452 million to 1.2 billion, and the creation of new middle class of around 300 million drawn to new mega-cities. The number of multinationals operating in Africa is also expected to grow many fold, some from within Africa, others from outside, including the continued influence of China.The importance of Youth and Women to the future of Africa was underlined in a side meeting.

I write on behalf of the African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC-Africa www.ituc-africa.org) representing over 17 million workers in 52 African countries to protest the arrest and detention of trade union leaders of the Sierra Leone Labour Congress (...)